Spies Like Us...

Edward Snowden strikes again! So now the NSA spies on our allies as well as our enemies (although maybe that wasn't a surprise).  The New York Times ran a story today (Oct. 27, 2013) about the latest round of NSA mishaps showing that the NSA has been monitoring the cell phone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel since 2002...whoops! Especially when just months before President Obama assured her that she was not being monitored....AWKWARD.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/28/world/europe/data-suggests-push-to-spy-on-merkel-dates-to-02.html?hp&_r=0

BBC World News also ran a story dealing with more fall out from Snowden's release of NSA files about Spain and the U.S spying on their citizens - needless to say they aren't happy either.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24708410#TWEET937545

As I do a quick glance at the major American news sites: CNN, NBC, Fox News, and ABC I am not seeing a lot, or in some cases any reports at all on this story.  Mainly I find stories about Obamacare Website problems, or a man being struck by lightening, or questioning if Hilary Clinton doesn't run for President in 2016 who will.

There is no doubt that this blunder by the American Government is monumental and damaging to our relationships around the world, but it seems as if the American Media is downplaying the importance of the story, while the international media is all over it.  This clearly is a joint effort of the media and the politicians working to steer the American public away from this story.  The politicians face embarrassment by this and the Government is even more so damaged by this internationally, but it appears if domestically it is just blip on the radar....

This is a case where I think the media has it wrong and shouldn't protect the politicians and they need to bring a huge spotlight and shine it bright for all to see. 

What do Ratings have to do with it.....

Ratings are everything to News organizations.  They need good ratings to sell more advertisement space, to make more money, to then in-turn pay for their operation costs. So what happens when one news organization questions the ratings of another news organization? You get the comical back and forth between MSNBC and Fox News. 

A few weeks ago Fox News debuted news reporter Megyn Kelly's new show "The Kelly File" in their 9pm time slot, going head to head with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow show.  Well it would appear that Megyn Kelly's show was a success, she had great numbers the first night (Monday) and by the next night (Tuesday) she had double her viewership - spanking the Rachel Maddow Show. 

Now enter MSNBC president Phil Griffin, he called for an investigation into Megyn Kelly's numbers, not believing them to be true.  So Nieslens did an investigation and concluded that the numbers were correct. The Kelly File had doubled its viewership in one day.

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2013/10/16/megyn-kellys-ratings-rise-legit-nielsen/

Now while Fox News plays this "investigation" up to "Fox Paranoia" - which is the main stream or liberal media not understanding how Fox News can have the highest ratings of News organizations on television.  I person see this as a business man who is mad that his product - the Rachel Maddow Show - is not performing to bigger audience so he can increase his advertisement sales.  As much as some would like to paint this as liberal against conservative, I think it comes down to dollar vs. dollar.

If CSPAN was Prime Time....

I saw a very interesting exchange between Senator Rand Paul from Kentucky (Republican) and Senator Dick Durbin from Illinois (Democrat).  They were discussing the government shutdown and specifically the reopening the National Parks on Wednesday October 9, 2013.

Here is the link to the youtube video of the exchange:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmqdiDrDIrU&feature=youtu.be

What I found interesting about this is that each side painted a very different picture of the same situation.  Just like media does.  Depending on what side you favor you will take the same facts and use them in a way the makes your side look like the better. (As a side note I also found it comical that Senator Durbin at every opportunity wanted to point out that Senator Paul is a junior Senator and that he isn't - as if this made his argument invalid) 

This exchange, I think, was a great illustration of what the problem is in Washington today.  It also allowed first hand accounts from the policy makers to go directly to the people....oh wait no one really watches C-SPAN. 

Now I understand that C-SPAN can be incredibly dull,and we all can't just watch C-SPAN, but isn't that would our media is for? Shouldn't they be filtering this type of info to us? 

The answer is YES! But did they? Not that I can see, I can't find any major news organization that showed this exchange.  But then again I could be the only person in America that enjoyed seeing this and wishes there was more coverage of it.  Because if that is the case I don't think I make up enough of a viewership for the media to care about....

I thought we were in a crisis- Government Shutdown? Anyone? Anyone?

When I did my daily round of news websites there was not a single constant top story among them:

Fox New has a story about Obama Care and it's technology glitches
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/10/09/3-million-obamacare-website-may-face-months-glitches-experts-warn/

CNN has a story about the questioning whether the GOP is dropping the Obama Care debate in the current shutdown
http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/09/politics/shutdown-showdown/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

ABC News has a story about the newly nominated Chair of the Federal Reserve, Janet Yellen
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/10/5-surprising-things-about-janet-yellen/

And the Drudge Report (they pull from many news sources for their content) is talking about he IRS scandal with the targeting members of the Tea Party
http://dailycaller.com/2013/10/09/white-house-irs-exchanged-confidential-taxpayer-info/

Now while I do look at about four other sources I didn't want to further bore you with more stories. So lets focus on these four.

Media and Politics, I contend tat they are symbiotic in nature.  They need each other to function probably and neither one is completely in control of the other.  They work together for there own advancement.  So sometimes it will be the media that controls the story, or it will be the politician.

So what happens when your government is in day 9 of a government shutdown and there has been no resolution?  That's right your media moves on because the American public's attention span is that of a gnat. Out of these fours news sources only 1 has a top story that is dealing with the Shutdown in any manner.  Yes there are other stories farther down the page or a link taking you to something about he shutdown, but most Americans are surfers - they don't really go to far to get their news.  What is front and center is what they think matters the most.  What we have here is media and political symbiotic burn out. 

And this is what you end up with; news sources differing on what the top news should be.  We all know that it should be about the shutdown, but were into the ninth day so in order for the media to keep their viewership up they need to start branching out. So if your were an uninformed American who only really looked at one maybe two news sources, you might think that this government shutdown isn't that big deal.  Because if it was then of course your news station would have it front and center...wouldn't they?

No, no they wouldn't.